


Fairy Tales and Failed Flirting

by augopher



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Laura Hale, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bad Flirting, Getting Together, Library assistant Stiles, M/M, Mutual Pining, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-03 15:19:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4105672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/augopher/pseuds/augopher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles works the late shift as a library assistant at University of Beacon Hills' Morris Library. One night, in a fit of boredom, he meets Derek and criticizes his choice of reading materials.</p><p>Bad flirting ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fairy Tales and Failed Flirting

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt Fill for [lyelack](http://www.lyelack.tumblr.com) on Tumblr
> 
> "I'm a librarian's assistant and you come by after class every day and I see what books you check out" au

           Stiles looked up at the clock on the wall ahead of him, though he already knew what it would read. He’d been checking his cell phone obsessively for the last two hours. The problem with his job at Morris Library on the Beacon Hills University campus was that as soon as classes ended in May, the campus became all but deserted. See, the summer session was not very popular and only offered maybe twenty classes among all majors. No one stuck around.

Hell, the population of Beacon Hills dropped by almost five thousand when the school year ended every year. He should know; he’d lived here all of his nineteen years.

Stiles groaned. Aside from himself and the librarian, the place was empty. He wasn’t exaggerating. Somewhere a tumbleweed should be blowing across this indoor ghost town. Why the hell was the place open until one a.m.?

Three hours ago he finished reshelving all the returns and other books left on tables and in the study rooms. Two hours ago, he finished adding fines to all accounts with overdue items. One hour ago,  he tried to play rolling chair polo. By himself.

It wasn’t much fun.

Now, Stiles could, if he wanted to, find a book to read among all the available options. However, he found most (If not all the books in the library) were too academic for his burnt out brain to handle right now. He wanted pulpy fiction, manga, comics, something other than An Analysis of Treaties, Colonial Economics, and Anthropological Discourse of the British Empire. Interesting topic, dry as hell read.

He still had two hours to go before his shift was over. He was going to die of boredom, of this, he was certain.

He checked around for his boss, but he suspected she’d gone to ‘lunch’ and just fallen asleep in the break room. That’s what he would have done.

Finding the coast clear, quite clear, depressingly clear, he kicked off the desk which sent his chair wheeling across the library floor. Once he made it to the far wall, he planted his feet against the marble and gave a good push to make him roll back to the front desk.

“Whee!” God, he was such a child, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Eventually, his juvenile chair slides turned into simply spinning around in his chair. He closed his eyes and dropped his head over the back of the chair so he could crane his face toward the ceiling.

Round and round.

        Round and round.

                    Round and round, until he suddenly came to an abrupt stop. Dizzy, Stiles opened his eyes and found himself staring up at a god.

Well, not really a god, just an attractive man. Holy Incapacitation, Batman, was he an attractive man.

“Excuse me, do you work here?”

“Yeah,” Stiles squeaked out as he started to stand up. “How can I help-” Stiles took one step and fell over. The only thing that kept him from hitting the ground was Mystery Man’s arm snagging him around the waist before his face met marble tiles. “Um…” Stiles felt his face flame as he straightened his newly disheveled clothes. “Thank you for the um, save. Nice reflexes.” He shuffled over to the checkout desk and swiped the man’s ID, and he did not check the guy’s name out. He absolutely did not. (His name was Derek). What? Stiles was a curious cat. These things could not be helped.

Stiles also did not pay a single shred of attention to the titles of the books Derek happened to be checking out. “Wow, you are really into fairy tales.”

Derek shifted uncomfortably, but didn’t say anything.

“Sorry. It’s just not a subject a guy who looks like you usually has interest in.” Stiles mentally face palmed. _You are an utter dumbass. Um gee, Dude. You should be reading books about sports statistics. Why do you open your mouth sometimes, Stiles?_

“Uh...my kid likes fairy tales.”

“Oh, erm, right. Sorry.” Stiles finished up scanning the books as quickly as possible. “HaveagoodnightjustforgetIeveropenedmymouth,” Stiles spit all the words out in a rush and tried hard not to fall apart until he watched Derek, and his exceptional ass, walk out the front door.

He thumped his head on the desk several times. “Stupid. So stupid."

 

 *   *   *   *   *

 

“Tell it again, Derek.” His sister, Laura cackled. “Especially the part where you told him you have a kid.”

From  where he lay, stretched out on the couch, he groaned  and covered his face with the open book. “I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.”

No, he definitely didn’t, but in moments like this, he certainly didn’t like her very much.

“Why are you both still up?” Their younger sister, Cora, asked as she walked in the front door and hung up her keys, dropping her purse on the kitchen table.

“Derek met a guy today.”

“Big deal, I meet guys every day.”

“No, no, no, Cora. Derek _met a guy_ , who and I’m quoting Der here, ‘ _had the most beautiful eyes. Like Bambi, and I sort of caught him when he fell down. I think I’m in love, Laura. No, stop. Why are you laughing? I’m serious._ ’ But get this, Derek,” she burst out laughing again and fought to regain her composure for almost a minute before gasping for air, “Derek...he,” and nope, she was still locked into her giggle loop. Laura grabbed her sides; she was laughing so hard. “He was so embarrassed about his senior project that Derek told the guy he had a kid and that’s what the books were for.” She tossed her head back as her whole body shook with laughter.

Derek moved his leg just enough to push her off the couch. She hit the carpet with an undignified thud. Not that she noticed, because she flopped onto her back and continued laughing until tears of mirth sprang from her eyes.

“I’m glad I amuse you.”

“Oh, Baby Brother, you and your social and romantic ineptitude are a neverending source of amusement for me. But seriously, I’m sorry you blew it.”

“No, you’re not.”

“You’re right, I’m not, but I am sorry you didn’t get laid. That’s rough, Bro.”

He closed his book, and grumbling shuffled into his bedroom, shutting the door far louder than necessary. He had to make a point. He wasn’t sure what it was exactly, something about obnoxious older sisters who took way too much pleasure in their younger brothers’ misery. Yeah, that was it.

Probably.

 

*   *   *   *   *

 

Stiles cast a glance towards the door and immediately ducked beneath the front desk, earning a very confused look from his best friend, Scott who had dropped by to visit him at work.

“Stiles, what the hell are-”

“It’s him.”

“Him, him? The married guy you won’t shut up about? Stiles, we talked about this. It is not appropriate to crush on married people.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “You think I don’t know that? But he comes in every week, sometimes twice, and it’s like he wants to flirt with me, but I don’t know.”

“Can’t because he’s married?” Scott asked. “Did he tell you he was married? Did you think to ask?”

“Duh. He has a kid. There’s go to be a significant other there somewhere.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Or, he’s a single parent. That thought ever cross your mind?” He looked underneath the desk. “And anyway, he’s gone now. Saw him go up the stairs.”

Stiles sighed in relief. “Yeah? How’d he look?”

“Dude, why are you asking me? How the hell should I know?”

“Objectively, Scott,” he rolled his eyes. “Objectively, did he look good? How tight were his jeans? How’d his ass look? Was it a thing poets would write sonnets to?”

Scott groaned and stood up from where he sat behind the circulation desk.

“Where are you going? I need you for moral support. It’s been two months; I’m dying.”

“And I need bad for me vending machine food if I am going to survive your ‘moral support’. You want anything?”

“Yeah.” He pulled several one dollar bills from his wallet. “I’ll take a Code Red and a Reese’s.” Stiles went to work scanning books back into rotation while Scott was gone. While he waited for his snack, he lost himself in the task.

“Um.”

“Dude, it’s fine Scott. I know the Code Red button is tricky. Just hit the machine a few times. It will work just fine,” Stiles said without looking up.

“No, I just-”

“Scott, would you-” Stiles’ words died in his throat as he turned around to see Derek standing at the desk with a small stack of books, fairy tales and literary analysis of them, per usual. “Hey there, Derek.” Yes, they were on first name basis now.

“Um.” Derek flushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “So, I-”

“Ooh fairy tale narrative and metafiction. What’s this? Fairy tales and the art of subversion. Heavy reading for a small child. You sure you didn’t grab these on accident? I mean unless you and your wife...husband…partner whatever are getting them thinking critically about what they read early. In that case, way to go you. Parent of the year.”

Derek quirked an eyebrow at him. “What?”

“I mean you have a kid. I naturally assumed there was a parenting partner.”

Derek rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t-”

“Oh, so you’re single? Well that’s a relief, because I definitely thought you were flirting- Oh my God, shut up, Stiles. Sorry. How are even a functioning adul-”

“I was.” His cheeks turned bright red in embarrassment. “I mean...crap.”

Stiles’ brain seemed to finally register Derek’s words. “Wait. You were? I wasn’t just imagining it per the norm? Because I do that, a lot, very often in fact. So much so my tombstone will probably read: Stiles Stilinski: Thought he was being hit on...he was mistaken. Anyway, is there a requisite that your kid must like me? Because I will be on my best behavior.”

Derek sighed. “I panicked.”

Stiles scanned Derek’s student ID. “About?” He watched Derek’s shoulders sag in defeat.

“I was embarrassed about my senior project. I don’t… I’m not a single dad. So I mean, sorry, if that’s your type or something.”

Stiles pressed his lips together to stop himself from giggling. “I see.”

“So, I mean, if you still were interested, I-”

Because the universe hated him (And it hated him a whole hell of a lot), Stiles burst out laughing, which Derek did not seem to take too kindly.

“You don’t have to be a jerk about it. Just forget it.” He turned to leave, but Stiles caught his arm.

“No, I’m sorry. I was mostly laughing at our ridiculous situation. I can’t flirt to save my life, and you invented a kid in panic. Embarrassed you say? Is this because I said something about how you didn’t look the part?”

Derek nodded.

“I am an idiot,” Stiles mumbled under his breath. “Ten minutes.”

“What?”

“My shift ends in ten minutes if you were still interested in the romantic train wreck that is Stiles Stilinski. I was supposed to hang out with my buddy Scott, but he totally owes me for all the times he’s bailed on me for a pretty face, which, let me tell you, is a whole lot, a fuckton of a lot. Wanna grab a slice with me? We can totally forget we are both apparently completely inept at flirting, and you can tell me all about that senior project. We can commiserate over,” Stiles looked at the cover of Derek’s last book, “feminist sexual politics of traditional fairy tales.”

Derek smiled. “I’d like that.”

“Great. That’s awesome. Totally awesome. Better than-” Stiles took a deep breath. “See you in ten.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on tumblr [captaintinymite](http://www.captaintinymite.tumblr.com)


End file.
